The featherweight bout served as the curtain-jerker for UFC 141, which took place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

It was one of three bouts that streamed on Facebook prior to the night’s Spike TV and pay-per-view broadcasts.

The fighters traded strikes early with Nunes working a variety of kicks and Gamburyan some looping punches. After an initial struggle, Gamburyan got a takedown, but Nunes quickly returned to his feet and unloaded some crisp kicks to close out the round.

With Gamburyan struggling with Nunes’ reach advantage, the Armenian-America looked to close the distance in the second. He unloaded quicker punches, including a stinging right hook that briefly dazed his Brazilian opponent, before securing the clinch and doing some damage from close quarters. As Nunes stalked, Gamburyan then unloaded a nice left and forced a single-leg takedown that led to some ground and pound. Nunes got back to his feet and traded blows in the final minute of the round.

With the fight tied heading into the final frame, Nunes tempered his aggression, and Gamburyan initially capitalized with a few solid hooks. But Nunes picked away with some kicks as his opponent again struggled with the distance. Gamburyan worked for takedowns but ate knees and kicks to the body. The takedown defense allowed Nunes to take the round, and ultimately, the fight.

The judges awarded him the unanimous-decision victory via 29-28 scores.

“I’m very happy with the victory tonight,” Nunes said. “Manny Gamburyan can take a lot of punishment because I hit him with a lot. This just motivates me to come back and be better.

“I have some room for improvement, and I’ll work hard.”

Nunes (17-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) successfully rebounds from a summer loss to
Kenny Florian and is now 4-1 over his past five fights. Gamburyan (11-7
MMA, 2-5 UFC), a runner-up on “The Ultimate Fighter 5,” now has lost his
past UFC four fights over two stints with the promotion that were separated by a run in
the WEC.

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